What benefit system do the u.s.a have?

[babycrazy1706]

From what I've heard people can get food stamps and wic and social housing but do you actually get 'money in your hand' atall? We get money put into our banks here in the uk if we have children (child benefit) out of work (job seekers allowance) money towards rent (housing benefit) money to top up low income (child tax credits and working tax credits) and a few more. We can spend the money how we please. I'm curious to how it all works in the u.s as my friend gets food stamps but she said you can't buy anything but food and drink (not even toilet paper/diapers/toothpaste etc. so what happens if you re poor and only get food stamps? How do you buy clothing/school uniform/diapers or pay your electric or fill up your car etc. just curious that's all. TIA

 

[sequeena]

Interesting thread

 

[Jes.shortcake]

I've never been on any benefits but I'll try my best to explain some lol

TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)-I believe with that you actually get money in your account. But it's temporary and you must actively look for work.

Unemployment-Also temporary. When you lose a job (by no fault of your own) you can claim this. Every week money is put in your account but you have to actively look for work and document where you applied.

Food Stamps-you get a card (kinda like a debit card) and every month a certain amount is put on it and yes, you can only buy food.

WIC-Helps pregnant women, moms, children afford healthier foods

Medicaid-Health coverage..I guess depending on your income it's either free or low cost

Income based housing-Apartment complexes where your rent is based on your income

The income cutoff for all the benefits (except unemployment) is REALLY low. Not sure if it's higher or easier to get benefits over there.

If I'm missing anything someone let me know. I'm sure someone else has more info then me bc I've never qualified for anything (except for my sons NICU stay)because growing up my parents were right over the maximum income and now so are me and my husband. Some people REALLY do need it but unfortunately you have some people cheating the system which kinda causes a stigma.

Honestly I think the elderly get shafted over here. I think they need the most help but they get VERY little.

*My sons NICU stay was covered by Medicaid bc here if their in the NICU longer then 30 days then their qualified for Medicaid no matter your income. But once their released the coverage stops.

 

[babycrazy1706]

Thanks for that JS!

Glad your son got NICU care covered

 

[maryp0ppins]

Dont know about the American system but I can tell you that compared to the Canadian system the benefits in the UK is very generous! I was shocked when moved over here.

 

[babycrazy1706]

Yes they are very generous here!!!

 

[darkriver]

My husband only recieved £400 a month on benefits when he lived alone. TBH I would have prefer a card or something.

 

[supertabby]

Sounds similar to UK though I've heard the amounts are higher here, no idea if that's true.

I know in UK there used to be something where you got vouchers for food - maybe an emergency situation and perhaps food banks have replaced this - I think you could spend them on nappies and loo roll etc as well but not alcohol, cigarettes and maybe certain food types you couldn't get like crisps and sweets? Don't know if this still exists.

Obviously main thing we don't have from the USA benefits is health insurance as we have the NHS here. How does that work in the states then? Does anyone who can't afford insurance get a basic insurance from the government? What does it cover? I'm just curious, having the NHS here it makes me sad that over there your access to levels of care is dependent on your wealth status.

 

[x__amour]

Jes.shortcake pretty much nailed it. The income restrictions are so low, it's crazy. Sometimes wish we had more help. DH is commission so they won't let us have anything.

 

[Jes.shortcake]

Obviously main thing we don't have from the USA benefits is health insurance as we have the NHS here. How does that work in the states then? Does anyone who can't afford insurance get a basic insurance from the government? What does it cover? I'm just curious, having the NHS here it makes me sad that over there your access to levels of care is dependent on your wealth status.

Here we have Medicaid which you have to make barely anything to get approved. So if your a single parent that doesn't have a high income you can get maybe get approved. Not sure how Medicaid works exactly but it's free insurance that covers all your bills or gives you a low co-pay.

Starting this year people who don't have insurance will get fined. What's messed up is I've had insurance my whole life..first under my parents plan then when I started working I had my own. I got laid off this year and my family had insurance through my work. So now were just living off my husbands income (he works 2 jobs so our income is too high to get help). We had to cut expenses just to get an individual plan for our LO. But we can't afford insurance for us right now. But now bc of that we will get a fine when we file our taxes next year. So not only can we not afford insurance but now we have to pay more money because we can't afford it?

The cost of insurance had gotten really high over the years. The cheaper policies have high deductibles. So you have to pay that deductible ($1,000, $2,500, $5,000..depends on the policy) out of your pocket first before the insurance even starts to pay anything. There are plans without a deductible but they are more expensive. Some plans have a maximum amount that the insurance will pay. And once you reach that limit..your shit outta luck. You really have to study the insurance policy before choosing it because it's a lot of variables. My job cut our hours before they did layoffs so it got to the point where all my income was going toward child care and insurance. I was basically working so my preemie son could have good insurance.

It's sad because a lot of families could really use the extra help but according to the government we make too much. When in reality we don't make much at all. Just hard working people trying to make ends meet. To get help here..you gotta be almost poor.

What's council housing? Is it like income based housing?

 

[Tasha]

Council housing is government owned, it is circumstances based that you get the home (like homeless will get highest priority, then other things like jobless, single mum, over-crowding etc and then the lowest priority will be those in work who are applying I think).

A big problem is though, you can be jobless or what ever and then get a job and settled but you can keep the house/apartment even though your circumstances have changed, meaning there is little left for those in need. It's beginning to change now though.

 

[MommyJogger]

Jes.shortcake pretty much nailed it. The income restrictions are so low, it's crazy. Sometimes wish we had more help. DH is commission so they won't let us have anything.

It's not just income restrictions, either. If you go from a decent income to a very low qualifying income, you have to absolutely deplete your savings first before getting nearly any kind of assistance, even if that assistance is set up as a temporary stop-gap. Depleting our savings down to be low enough to qualify would make our need for assistance a much more long-term problem because then we'd be stuck paying $1500 in rent instead of $550 on a mortgage because we'd lack the necessary down payment when we move and the extortionate rent would prevent us from saving for the down payment.
I stop getting paid next month and we've already started to shut ourselves down enough to live on DH's $19-22k salary for 6 months until he graduates and earns a decent living. I literally don't know what we'd do if it weren't going to be spring/summer soon to grow food and we didn't have the hen house up and running. We're all sleeping in 2 pairs of pants and sweaters until it warms up because we can't afford to heat the house anymore anymore. Really, I'm just glad we have somewhere to sleep. There are too many that don't.

 

[emyandpotato]

Obviously main thing we don't have from the USA benefits is health insurance as we have the NHS here. How does that work in the states then? Does anyone who can't afford insurance get a basic insurance from the government? What does it cover? I'm just curious, having the NHS here it makes me sad that over there your access to levels of care is dependent on your wealth status.

Here we have Medicaid which you have to make barely anything to get approved. So if your a single parent that doesn't have a high income you can get maybe get approved. Not sure how Medicaid works exactly but it's free insurance that covers all your bills or gives you a low co-pay.

Starting this year people who don't have insurance will get fined. What's messed up is I've had insurance my whole life..first under my parents plan then when I started working I had my own. I got laid off this year and my family had insurance through my work. So now were just living off my husbands income (he works 2 jobs so our income is too high to get help). We had to cut expenses just to get an individual plan for our LO. But we can't afford insurance for us right now. But now bc of that we will get a fine when we file our taxes next year. So not only can we not afford insurance but now we have to pay more money because we can't afford it?

The cost of insurance had gotten really high over the years. The cheaper policies have high deductibles. So you have to pay that deductible ($1,000, $2,500, $5,000..depends on the policy) out of your pocket first before the insurance even starts to pay anything. There are plans without a deductible but they are more expensive. Some plans have a maximum amount that the insurance will pay. And once you reach that limit..your shit outta luck. You really have to study the insurance policy before choosing it because it's a lot of variables. My job cut our hours before they did layoffs so it got to the point where all my income was going toward child care and insurance. I was basically working so my preemie son could have good insurance.

It's sad because a lot of families could really use the extra help but according to the government we make too much. When in reality we don't make much at all. Just hard working people trying to make ends meet. To get help here..you gotta be almost poor.

What's council housing? Is it like income based housing?

Paying for health care is absolutely vile. Especially when things are such an obvious rip off, like a saline drip for $1000

 

[Jes.shortcake]

A big problem is though, you can be jobless or what ever and then get a job and settled but you can keep the house/apartment even though your circumstances have changed, meaning there is little left for those in need. It's beginning to change now though.

I'm glad that's changing bc that's not fair. Here I think you have to notify them of any income changes. My cousin didn't know, she thought it was just every 6 months. So she kept getting food stamps and when it was time to reapply she told them she didn't need them anymore bc she got hired full time (she was a temp) and they made her pay back everything .

 

[Equreuil]

In the US, it varies from state to state, since cost of living varies so much. Qualifying is mostly based on income and size of household.

In California, they just changed it to where now if you qualify for & receive food stamps, you also qualify for Medi-Cal (state coverage). Before this, when I applied for it was flat out told "they only give it to pregnant women and minorities." and even if you were pregnant it only lasted until 2 months past your due date.

Cash aid is actually the hardest one to qualify for. Some friends of mine who were flat broke, out of work and have a child, got denied even though they were receiving other benefits.

But for all of it, what bothers me is that they don't take into account what kind of monthly expenses you have - not even rent - that might make a difference in how much help you need. All they want is the amount before taxes are taken out and a copy of the paystub as proof.

 

[babycrazy1706]

Wow, it sounds pretty tough over there!!

 

[Equreuil]

Wow, it sounds pretty tough over there!!

When it comes to getting government benefits, it really is. Not to mention the social stigma if you do. Even a good friend of mine looked down on me a bit when I told her we were applying for food stamps.

We both work, but because our living quarters/utilities are a part of our salary, the actual money we get paid is less, and not enough to cover groceries as well as personal bills/expenses.

 

[MelliPaige]

In my state (not sure if its the same in others) if you qualify for food stamps you can also get help with your electric bill.
We also have income-based apartments and HUD which is housing based on your income...sometimes free housing.
You can also get what's called kchip..its "cash" technically but you get it on your food stamp card and can buy anything with it..
And welfare checks to help if you don't have a job or make enough to live off of

That's all I can think of right now

 

[seoj]

I'm all for government support- don't get me wrong- it's just a broken system with not enough money and too little support. The states (least mine) don't have the man power to followup with people- so they end up on support even AFTER their circumstances change-- or they just take the support and do nothing to better their lives with it.

When someones circumstances change (which I know personally when I was laid off my job after 10yrs- and looked for work and found it 3mos later- then laid off AGAIN! and found another job again 2mos later)- then yes, give them support. But make them WORK for it- offer opportunities to better their lives... give people the tools to make things better, then, when things are better- give that support to someone else who truly needs it still!

I know of people who've totally taken advantage of unemployment- not looked for work, just kept reapplying and used it to supplement their income (while their spouse still worked full time!!!!)- when there are other single mom's who work full time and still struggle to make ends meet but don't "qualify" for any assistence- or so little assitence the hassle isn't worth it... ?!

It's aggrevating tbh... if I only had a damn magic wand!